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Hunter was exhausted.
His entire body ached as he stepped out of the shower, the slight throbbing in his skull and the pulsing of bruises on his skin reminding him of the most important battle of his life, which he had fought just hours before. His gaze swept across his silhouette in the mirror, one hand absentmindedly brushing over his naked torso to check on his bruised ribs. The pain was barely even there and the clone sighed softly with relief, sending out a silent thank you to Echo for finding those bacta patches in the shuttle they took to escape Tantiss. AZI put all of them back together when they returned to Pabu, but Hunter was sure these patches really saved his skin before they even got here.
He put on a pair of soft, gray sweatpants from the pile of clothes gifted to him by Shep, then reached for a loose, matching linen shirt but discarded it after a moment's thought, opting to sleep shirtless instead. The nights on Pabu weren't as hot as the days were, but at this time of the yearly cycle, it wasn't much colder either.
He exited the fresher with the intention of heading to bed but the view outside the window pulled him away from it and instead brought him to lean against the windowsill, his eyes gazing at the full moon painting the ocean in silver. He filled his lungs with the fresh, nightly breeze, then released it slowly, letting the sensation of serenity wash over him. It was so quiet. So… peaceful.
The island was exactly how he remembered it. The navy blue sky was dotted with stars. Currents sent ripples through calm waters, creating small waves on the surface of the ocean. Lower Pabu slowly plunged into darkness as more people turned in for the night.
The place looked just the way it did the day he and his squad first set foot on its soil. And yet, everything was different now.
They had a house. A home. Hunter still remembered the utter disbelief that flooded him when, right before the Batch headed out to go after Omega, Shep had pulled him aside and held onto his trembling hand with both of his, a look in his tired eyes more serious than Hunter had ever seen.
“If you ever decide to come back, a place for you and your family will be ready and waiting,” he said.
It took Hunter a moment to find words. In all the chaos of the invasion around them, in the haze of the pain of his chest being ripped open with every mile of distance the Empire was putting between him and Omega, he was left completely speechless.
“Shep, I can't possibly accept—” he stuttered, shaking his head. “After what happened—”
“Nonsense. You deserve it, Hunter. After everything… you deserve it.” Then the mayor did something that had surprised Hunter even more — he pulled him into a hug.
“Go bring your little girl back home,” Shep whispered against his ear, one father to another, before releasing him with a pat on the back. Hunter could do nothing but nod with determination. Shep stepped back, gave him one last encouraging smile, and walked away, directing his focus to his other citizens who needed his aid. While Hunter stood there, holding his helmet under his arm, a lump in his throat and tears burning behind his gaze that had nothing to do with the smoke lingering in the air.
He slipped his helmet back on, jumped on board Phee's ship, and did not stop until Omega was safe in his arms again.
When they returned, the first thing Shep did was hand him the keys.
Hunter took a moment to look at it lying in his open palm.
“Thank you,” he choked out, more grateful than he could ever be able to express.
“Welcome home,” Shep simply said with a smile, his arm wrapped around Hunter's shoulders as they watched their daughters run into each other's arms and spin around, laughing.
And now his family was safe. Truly safe for the first time in their lives. His daughter slept soundly just down the hall, as did his brothers. And Hunter stood by the window of his own bedroom, wearing comfortable, civilian clothes instead of blacks and armor. There was a bed behind him waiting for him to sleep in — a big one with a thick, comfortable mattress instead of a thin, hard bunk in some barracks or on board a ship. He had a closet full of clothes and a fridge full of fresh food. A kitchen to cook meals in and a patio to sit on and enjoy sunsets. A community of friends was surrounding them from both sides, always ready to lend a helping hand.
There was no big battle waiting for him in the morning and he couldn't be more glad. It was going to take some getting used to not having to look over their shoulders all the time. But nevertheless, Hunter was looking forward to the rest of his life.
A soft flutter of her familiar heartbeat jolted him out of his reverie before she even knocked. Omega stood in the open doorway when he turned, a frown twisting her beautiful features as she kept hugging herself. Hunter's heart clenched painfully in his chest as he took in her appearance. Clad in a rumpled, thin linen sleep tunic and pants, she stood barefoot, her hair loose and framing a pale face that was clearly marked with fresh tears.
“Omega? Kid, what's wrong?”
His feet were carrying him forward before he even uttered the whole sentence. Omega dropped her gaze and sniffled, avoiding his eyes as she wiped her face with the back of her wrist, but didn't protest when he scooped her up and wrapped her in his arms, cradling her little body against his bare chest.
“What's going on, sweetheart?” He whispered to her, rubbing soothing circles into her back.
“I can't sleep,” Omega mumbled into the crook of his neck. Hunter curled his hand over the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Nightmares?”
“Not really. Just… My head is really loud. Lots of thoughts about... everything.” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and Hunter felt her tears leave trails on his skin. “I don't even know why I’m crying, but I can't seem to stop.”
Hunter closed his eyes and sighed, his chest heavy. The kid's overwhelmed, that's why. He had a feeling this would happen eventually; he just hoped it wouldn't be tonight. Omega was so happy when they returned, so full of life and energy as she ran around the island with the other kids. Despite everything that went down on Tantiss, her bright smile never left her face. Everyone was telling him she's going to fall asleep the second she hits the bed, but clearly that wasn't the case.
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” he told her sympathetically. “My head is loud, too.”
Another sniff. “Is that why you're awake?”
“Mhm.”
Closing the door behind him, he turned back into his bedroom and started taking slow laps around the space, rocking Omega in his arms.
She was taller now than before Tantiss but she still fit in his hold seamlessly. She was as secure as she could be, with her legs wrapped around his waist and one of his arms supporting her bottom. Hunter felt himself melt when she nestled into him, but worry started gnawing at his gut when her quiet sobs wouldn't stop — she tried to stifle them at first but was too tired, so she just hid her face in the crook of his neck and kept on crying.
“My baby…” He sighed into her hair, his eyes closing as he held her tighter. “Shh, shh, I’m here, it's okay. It's okay, baby girl. I’m right here, I got you. Shh…”
He could feel her heart pounding against his own chest. Omega clung onto him as tight as she could, like she was scared she'd fall into an endless abyss if he loosened his hold on her even slightly. Hunter desperately wanted to know what was wrong, but he did not want to overwhelm her with questions, so he just kept rocking her gently, lips pressed to her temple and fingers running through her hair, and he waited.
A small shiver ran through her as they passed the window and stepped right into the passing breeze. Omega immediately tightened her grip around Hunter's neck, pressing herself closer with a quiet whimper.
“Shh, everything’s okay.” Hunter hushed her and squeezed her to him, rubbing her back slowly. He continued his path across the room until he reached a small dresser crowned with a round vanity mirror in a wooden frame.
What a picture they made, the two of them. Her small form curled up against him, cradled to his chest like the most precious thing in the world. And him, all the rough edges smoothed out by her mere presence. Body of a soldier covered in scars, now a sanctuary for his little girl to hide in.
Something about the image made him unable to turn away. The way she was resting on him... He couldn't stop looking.
Her head pillowed safely on his shoulder. One arm wrapped around his neck while the other was pressed to his chest. Her small hand curled into a loose fist right above his heartbeat. Her blonde hair, so long now that it fell down to her shoulders just like his, shining silver in the moonlight. How perfectly she fit against him, as if his arms weren't designed to fight at all but with the sole intention of holding her.
She was perfect in every possible way.
He was incomplete without her.
When Omega had first joined them, Tech dug up some parenting books on the holonet. He told Hunter to skip the first few chapters as they were focusing more on infants and smaller children, but Hunter still spent one night scrolling through the pages after one picture caught his attention.
A young father held his newborn baby against his bare chest, his large hand curled protectively around the child’s back to keep it from sliding down. The man was smiling fondly down at the child in the same way Hunter at the time started catching himself smiling at Omega, and the baby lay content on their father's skin, one chubby cheek squished against his sternum. A note next to the picture listed the benefits of such close and intimate contact for dads, recommending it as a way of bonding with their child and naming it a great way to bring out a surge of protectiveness toward the baby and make the father feel more confident. Dads can also pass on the same benefits as moms do in terms of helping to regulate their baby's temperature and heartbeat, Hunter read in the note, and the words have been engraved in his brain ever since then.
Omega wasn't a baby anymore. Due to the twisted laws of time, cloning, and genetics, Hunter didn't even exist yet when she was. But there was something about the way she felt against him when he held her like this, the way she snuggled her little body to him to be as close as possible, that could almost make him believe that she's still as tiny as that baby in the picture. The beat of her heart right against his own, the warmth she radiated that was spreading over his entire body in slow, calm waves — it all made him never want to let her go, and selfishly, Hunter dreaded the day she'd become too big, too tall, too grown up to be held like this.
He couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life watching her flourish. But in moments like this, ever since the first time she fell asleep on his chest on board the Marauder, he wished she could stay this little forever.
Relief washed over him when he realized she wasn’t crying anymore. Good. Maybe now she’ll be able to fall asleep and get some rest. He’ll try to ask about her troubles in the morning, and if she wants to tell him, she will.
He was about to turn around and take her to bed when Omega turned her face to the mirror and her sleepy eyes found his in the reflection.
“I should be happy that it's over, that we’re free,” she said. “But I just feel so sad.”
Hunter watched his own face twist with a frown.
“Sad?”
She nodded.
“Because… Because Tech isn't here to enjoy this freedom. And because the kids from the Vault may never see their families again.”
“Omega…” Hunter sighed, but she just kept on talking.
“And yeah, we’ve rescued those clones, but there were so many we couldn't rescue, so many who died during experiments or were changed by them.” Her voice started cracking again, and a fresh wave of incoming tears welled up in her eyes. “And then Crosshair lost his hand... and Pabu was... and it's all my...”
“Hey, shh, no.” Holding her tighter, Hunter turned on his heel and carried Omega to his bed, where he sat down at the edge of it and shifted her to sit in his lap. New tears were rolling down her round cheeks while she kept her head down, her lower lip curled between her teeth to keep it from trembling, and Hunter ducked his head to catch her gaze, his warm hand coming up to cup her cheek.
“Hey, look at me,” he said softly. More tears fell as she did and he quickly wiped them away. “Don't blame yourself for this, please. None of it was your fault, Omega. None. You are nothing but a victim here, same as those clones, and those kids, and Crosshair. You understand?”
Omega gazed into his eyes for a long moment, as if searching for something.
“Then why do I feel like this?” She asked.
The question broke him, same as the look in her eyes. She was way too young to hold so much pain and sorrow in her gaze.
Despite that, the smile that appeared on his face was genuine.
“Because you care. You care so strongly and so deeply. You might be small but your heart is bigger than this entire galaxy.” His words caused her lips to twitch in the glimmer of a smile, and Hunter kissed her forehead sweetly, relieved.
“I guess that's why it's so hard,” he told her. “But it will pass. Things will be alright again, I promise.”
As Omega sniffled quietly, pondering over his words, Hunter tucked some hair behind her ear and kept stroking her cheek, watching her as she slowly calmed down. Eventually, she gave him a small nod, then slumped against him with a shaky sigh, tucking her head back into the crook of his neck. Hunter tightened his hold on her and cradled her to his chest, swaying with her gently as he continued to gaze out the window over her head.
If he could, he'd take all the pain and all that guilt from her and carry it on his own shoulders. He'd bear it all so she wouldn't have to. She's so young, just a child, and she's already been through so much; Hunter wished more than anything that he could turn back time and make sure she's never hurt, never taken, that she never has to lose anyone she loves. He wished for so much; for Tech to be here, for the Vault kids to be safe with their families, for the clones to have never been reduced to mere lab rats. There's nothing to be done about any of that, though. It wasn't fair that they had to lose so much to get here, but the only thing they could do now was move forward.
As the minutes passed in silence, Hunter hoped Omega would fall asleep, exhausted from crying and all the recent action, but when he looked down at her, her eyes were still open. He watched as she drew her eyebrows together in a frown and stretched her fingers to lightly brush them over the skin on his stomach.
“I don't remember this,” she said quietly, confusion coloring her voice. Hunter followed her gaze and found her staring at a thick, white line of a freshly healed scar slicing through his left side.
He swallowed bile that gathered in his throat as the memories rushed back in. Four months into the search for her, a job they did for the Pyke Syndicate on Abafar. A job Wrecker was fully against, deeming it too risky but Hunter took it anyway because there was no other choice. Time was slipping through his fingers. Every day without Omega was another day he lost more and more of his sanity. He became reckless, blind to the risks. All that mattered was getting something — anything — that would lead him to her; it didn't matter how.
Not until he almost bled out on the floor of the Marauder.
Omega traced the scar with her finger, her touch featherlight, as if she feared the wound would open again. “It looks fresh, but you were never hurt like that, not while I was… oh.”
Her chin started to wobble when it finally dawned on her.
“Six months,” she whispered as she pressed her whole palm to the closed wound, so quietly that Hunter wouldn’t even hear her without his enhanced hearing. He didn't need to look at her face to know she was starting to cry again.
He brought his hand to cover hers and held it there against his skin.
“Looking for you wasn't easy,” he told her. “But nothing was going to stop me. Nothing.”
There was no need to go into details, especially with her being so distraught, but Hunter felt he owed her the truth.
Omega nuzzled her face further into his chest. Her breath hitched in her throat.
“I just wish...”
“I know, baby.” He pulled her back to him and kissed her head. “I know.”
It was as if the floodgates had opened again. With a violent, choked-up sob, Omega wrapped herself around him once more, her thin arms looping around his neck and holding on tight as she pressed her whole body against his chest. Hunter’s heart tore itself in half as she trembled in his embrace, struggling to catch a breath, and no matter how much he tightened his hold on her, no matter how much closer he brought her, it still wasn't close enough. It still didn't dry her tears, it did nothing to calm her fears.
She was right here in his arms; she could feel his heartbeat drum in sync with her own and his breath brush over her cheek. His skin was warm under her fingertips, and his voice hummed softly in her ear. And she was still shaking like a leaf in the wind, terrified of the universe taking him away from her like it almost did before.
Hunter couldn't blame her; he felt the same way. He'd carve out a hole in his chest for her to hide in and still be afraid she'd disappear if he wasn't looking. He's made many mistakes in the past, but he never regretted them as much as he did in this moment, watching his little girl fall apart because she realized that she could have lost him and she wouldn't even know.
“Shh, I'm okay,” he whispered to her, cupping the back of her head in his palm. “I’m okay, my little ad’ika, everything's okay.”
“Buir…”
Tears pushed their way past his eyelashes and rolled down his cheeks without his permission. With his breath hitching in his throat, Hunter dipped his head and burrowed his face into Omega's shoulder.
“I’m here, my little girl. I’m right here. Shh, I’m right here…”
He continued to whisper it to her over and over again, rocking her back and forth as she cried herself to sleep. When his own tears silently streamed down his face and soaked into the sleeve of her tunic, he didn't stop them. He just held onto his daughter just as tight as she held onto him, and looked for solace in the beat of her heart and the warmth of her body cradled against his own.
They will never lose each other again. He will never allow her bright light to disappear from his life, never again will the darkness take hold of his existence. He’ll give his life, every last drop of his blood, sweat and tears, to make sure that this little girl, who has chosen him and his brothers to be her guardian angels in this cruel, unforgiving Galaxy, grows up safe and happy.
He might have been created to be a soldier. But the universe decided to make him a father instead.
“Come on, baby girl. Let's get you to bed,” Hunter said around the growing lump in his throat when he noticed that Omega had gone slack in his hold.
Her arms instantly locked around him tighter.
“I want to stay with you,” she mumbled.
“You are staying with me, don't worry. But you need to get some sleep, Omega. You're exhausted.”
She didn't protest.
With his hold on her secure, Hunter stood up and moved to the side of the bed so he could help her slip under the covers. Omega scooted over to make room for him and, curled up on her side, watched him with sleepy eyes as he followed right after her. He didn't waste a second gathering her back into his arms once he was settled, a soft smile on his lips as she laid her head on his chest and released a long, content sigh.
Tears still shined on her cheeks but she seemed okay now. Hunter planted a sweet kiss on her forehead and forced himself to stay awake for a little bit longer, just to watch her eyelids drop and her breath even out. Within minutes, Omega was asleep, her round lips parted slightly as she nuzzled her cheek against the soft skin on his chest.
“Goodnight, my little girl,” he whispered into her hair. “I love you.”
She couldn't hear him anymore but he didn't mind. There was a whole lifetime ahead of her to hear it every day.